Carla J. Easton – Sugar Honey
Anger is an energy, and on Sugar Honey, Easton is channeling every negative emotion into making these tracks soar
Carla J. Easton's self-produced Sugar Honey is a pure pop album with a fiercely independent streak. And for all its moments of lightness and colour, it would be a mistake to see Sugar Honey as some kind of candy floss confection. Anger is an energy, and on this showing, Easton is channeling every negative emotion into making these tracks soar.
Let’s throw some names out there. Prince. Cindy Lauper. Duran Duran. Altered Images. On One Week, Easton creates a kind of negative image of Craig David’s 7 Days; Blooming 4U channels Serious Moonlight-era Bowie as covered by Laura Mvula; Be OK could have been number one in 1983. By the time we get to the penultimate Weekend Lover, some of the storm clouds have begun to clear, and we hear a different side to Easton – softer, more optimistic, but still realistic about the odds.
As a collection, Sugar Honey delivers a masterful, mature set of songs which stand up to repeated listening long after the first hit has passed. In five years time, newly-single ex-lovers up and down our land should be belting out Every Little Bit of My Heart at the Sunday karaoke, tears of joy and regret streaming down their faces, and we will all be the better for it.
Listen to: Weekend Lover, Every Little Bit of My Heart, Blooming 4U